


Moca is Out of Spending Money

by EmeliaK



Category: BanG Dream! (Anime), BanG Dream! Girl's Band Party! (Video Game)
Genre: F/F, also moca gets variously owned, also mocalisa where moca gets variously owned, tsugu and moca hang out
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-11-08
Updated: 2018-11-08
Packaged: 2019-08-20 11:31:34
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,926
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/16554953
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/EmeliaK/pseuds/EmeliaK
Summary: Moca and Tsugumi have gone to the mall.





	Moca is Out of Spending Money

**Author's Note:**

> (T for not-G talk, and not much else.)

Moca is out of spending money.

She grimaces. Removes her hand from her guilty, guilty pocket. This is bad timing, because she's at the register with Tsugu, buying a neat jacket, right now, and it costs 4800 yen including tax.

Usually it's so easy for her to flip open her wallet and just feel for the notes without even having to take the damn thing out. (She's not fond of taking it out because then she has to _look_ at what her wallet actually contains, when she could just rip notes out, slap down as much as she needs to and force-fumble the rest back in.) There's no notes to rip out now, which is the one slight flaw in her MO. (MO for Moca! Rimshot, Tomoe.) She could totally just use her debit card instead.

Nope.

She works a register herself. She _knows_. Her convenience store's hip with the times and actually picked up a card reader, but that's led to every single person on a simple food run she's had to tell "Your card's been rejected, so, uh... cash?" in, like, a way that doesn't sound awkward at all because she's too chill for that, but internally she'd be clawing at her face if she wasn't too chill for _that_. What was the overdraft on her card? 15000 yen? That's _tight_. _Bad tight_. She knows what awaits at the end of that tunnel, or so she imagines: cruel, public humiliation, and no excuse that makes you look cool, or rock, or anything. The slipperiest, slopiest slope of all slopes. Never shall she perform the pull-it-out-of-the-reader-and-try-to-act-like-that-didn't-happen-haha of shame, so reads Founding Principle II of the Moca School of Financial Responsibility.

All this has taken, like, two seconds to process, but Tsugumi doesn't see Moca ever pause for even a single fraction of anything. Or, like, grimace, which she totally did two seconds ago.

"Moca? Is something up?"

This is awkward. And Tsugu's already paid for her own stuff. She bought a cap, a weird heavy-duty camo-pattern skirt and vest that actually looks kind of aesthetic, and a bunch of scrunchies which Moca's pretty sure Tsugu does not wear.

"Uuhhh."

Uuuuuhhhhhhh.

"Did you forget your wallet?"

Easy out. "Yyyeah." But she feels herself losing a little humanity in the process. Equivalent exchange demands it in exchange for her monetary chastity.

The cashier leans very slightly forwards. Tall, imposing, and kind of gives the impression she has a hidden side that holds her own in back-alley brawls. Really gentle voice while ringing up the total, though. "If you can't pay for it, then just leave it here and I'll take it back." Well, gentle, but pained now.

"No! It's fine, I can pay for it--"

"Tsugu? Are you sure you want to do that?" Any other context, Moca'd be smirking, but right now she's definitely not because that's 4800 yen she'd be pretty much _tricking_  Tsugu into paying, so her face is actually uncharacteristically deadpan serious as she says it.

"Um..."

Whoops, she stopped Tsugu dead. Okay, next scene, please, director! Where's the next scene?

Moca looks back at the counter. God, the jacket, though... 4800 yen is _such a steal_  for it, Moca reckons, and on top of the sleekest-ass pure black, it has, like, this diagonal half-subtle deep red stripe that runs down the front, crossing the zipper near the bottom, and no other piece of apparel she's ever seen has reminded her as perfectly of Ran's hair as that.

"Uh, can I reserve this jacket? If not formally, then, like..." Saying this would take up anyone else's guts. Moca's got guts for infinity, though. Peace, peace.

"We don't do that here, sorry."

Sharp inhale through teeth. Guts for infinity, Moca, c'mon.

"Is--"

"Moca, I'll buy it. I'll buy it for you. Okay?" Tsugumi's practically revelling in how novel this situation is. She may never witness Moca being so painfully, pitifully, owned again, and besides, it's not like she can just stand there and watch.

"Tsugu... if you do that, I'll have to kill you." Ako taught her instant assassination techniques one time. She'll bust out the Styx Devil Hand or whatever. _Wait, at least use this points card..._  Moca actually wants to say, but she knows that Tsugu knows that all her point cards live in - wait for it - her wallet.

"It's okay! It's okay! It's alright, Moca, I've got allowance to spare. You can pay me back. Just let me do this, okay?"

You are _such_ a nice girl, Tsugu.

 

* * *

 

 

A couple minutes later, they're at the food court. Freedom! She can't even see that shop from here. The concept of the jacket's still giving Moca mixed feelings, though - not the _really fucking cool jacket_  jacket, the "I owe Tsugu a hot 4800 yen that I don't have yet for this jacket" jacket.

They're seated at a mall table next to the glass-paned mall railing. Kind-of-moderately-sized mall trees sit in mall pots behind both of them. Mall mall mall mall mall.

Ooooh my god they're at the food court and she still doesn't have money. There's no way she's letting Tsugu treat her to a meal on top of this, out of the pure goodness of her heart, bless her.

Bless Tsugu. Repent for her wrongdoings, Moca must. Okay, she's coming clean now.

"I, uh. Don't have any money on me."

Tsugumi settles her bag of purchases under her chair, and kicks it in a little. "Well, I figured, with you not having your wallet."

"No, like, I have my wallet."

"Oh. Huh?"

"I just don't have any money in it."

"So you didn't withdraw any?"

"No, I don't have any."

"On your card?"

"No. Sorry." Getting hard to keep her gaze on Tsugu now. Let's look down at the table instead.

"Moca..."

"I'll cut what I owe you out of my next cheque."

"Mocaaa, it's finnne..."

Goddamnit, Tsugu, you are _such_  a _nice girl_. At least she doesn't listen to strangers or talk with the telemarketers. "Seriously, though... you dropped five grand on me. And I was, like, lying for it. I gotta pay you interest or somethin' on top of this."

"Nope." She forms an X with her arms. "You're paying me no more than 4800 yen, at some point, and that's it. Let's actually talk about something, now, okay?" Tsugu's tone makes it clear that there is no give to be found in her on this day.

"Uhh. Can't go against that, I guess..."

...Moca leans back, throwing her head over the backrest as far as it'll go. Some day she's gonna do that and it'll finally fall off and she'll become a dullahan. And freak out everyone in her band. And everyone at Haneoka. She could throw her head at Minato to super-freak _her_ out...

"How's practice?" Moca eventually comes up with.

Tsugumi thinks for a moment. "It's... alright. I'm keeping up with my parts. Ran would say 'same as always', I think. What about you? Have you whipped out any crazy Moca-style solos while I wasn't there?"

"I jammed with Lisa for a bit after work yesterday, actually... it was pretty good. And the gyuudon. We went out for gyuudon together."

"You two would make a good duo, huh? Maybe you should form one. And call it, maybe, Ima no Ao or something - that's a good name, actually! Right?"

"Tsugu, you can't be a rock band with two people..."

"Sure you can! There's that one American band... The... White Stripes? That's two people."

"How do they do concerts, though?"

"I... don't know, actually, let me look it up... huh? I didn't know they disbanded. One's a drummer, the other is guitar and vocals."

"Damn... you'd need a lot of hardware to pull that off... and I don't think Lisa can drum. Maybe if we picked up a cheap drum machine or something..."

"Ooh! Ima no Ao, I no Ha! That'd be a super pretty name, wouldn't it? Your family names go really well together."

Moca's run-of-the-mill lazy grin finally returns to her after hearing that last part. You innocent, innocent soul, Tsugu... "Mmmm. That's a pretty chill name for a band. You think we'd do, like, super ambient tracks? Go all alt-rock. Maybe the name would be cooler in English, though..."

"English, huh? 'Blue of Now, Leaf of'... what's i in English, again?"

"Iunno."

"Google says 'well'. Maybe like 'well done' well?"

"Iunno. Maybe in the Jomon era, they built wells and then they partied around them."

"The Jomon era was only in Japan, though..."

"You could also weave our first names together. Mo-li-ca-sa... damn..." Thanks for being born, Lisa.

"Morikasa? Umbrellas in the forest... that's a nice image, isn't it?"

"Yeaaah. Hey, Tsugu. What about our names?"

"Tsu... mo, gu, ka."

"Mogu." Moca snorts.

"Munch, munch. Right?"

"And then our family names would be, like... Ao-ha, Ha-zawa?"

"Aoba and Hazawa... wait, they don't change at all!"

"The kanji do, I guess."

"Switch them out and they still sound the same... I never noticed."

"We're all connected, Tsugu. It runs deep. Bonds beyond your imagination..." Moca leans in close and flashes her most moderately unsettling grin.

"Cut it out, Moca! That's creepy!" Tsugumi bats at Moca's face. "Shoo!"

"Hey, watch the hair. What if it falls off?"

Tsugumi flinches and tucks her hands straight back into her lap. "Are you wearing a wig now!?"

Silence falls for a single beat - and the world-class boke-tsukkomi moment they just had sinks in.

Tsugumi cracks up, bending over. "Pfffhahaha..."

"Wooow, we're good. We should be on TV."

"Right! Tsumoguca can be the name of our act! And we can promote Afterglow in our commercial airtime! 'Hello, thanks for having us, we're proud to be here. You might not know this, but we're actually part of a five-member band--'"

"And then we bring the others in. Shred live on air..."

"We'd turn it into a variety show instead of a comedy show doing that, Moca."

"Variety's usually primetime slots, right? So it's okay... it just means we made it big--"

Moca's stomach growls. Softly and briefly, but to the both of them, it sure as hell does.

"..."

"Moca? When was the last time you ate?"

"Uhh. Last night."

"Okay, you stay right there," Tsugumi says as she stands up and holds out her hand to preempt any movement Moca makes, "because if you get up and follow me, you might guilt me into not buying you something to eat."

"This is some sharp foresight, Tsugu. Where'd you learn it?"

"Ran taught me! It was a weird conversation a couple of days ago about you visiting my cafe, but Ran taught me specifically about not letting you 'pull a fast one'. Really, she relayed it kind of like an animal handler..."

"You'd figure I'd guilt you _into_ making you buy food... not out of it."

"Okay." Tsugumi flashes a confident smile. Attitudinous, even. "Guilt me into buying you food."

Moca opens her mouth.

Then she closes it.

Is she seriously being out-finessed by Tsugu? She has her moments, but this... this is beyond. "Who are you, and what did you do to my sweet, innocent Tsugu?"

"Alright, it's settled then. You're getting a loaded barbecue-cheeseburger large meal with water, because this cook on a show yesterday mentioned water is good for clearing your palate, and also, it's not soda, because soda is bad for your health, and I'm getting the same, okay? I'll be back in a bit."

Moca watches as she heads off towards a counter far across the food court, and she squints slightly after her. _Water???_

Then she gives up and leans back in her chair, rocking away in quiet, solemn appreciation. _What a nice girl you are, Tsugu._

 

...Tsugu?

Moca here doesn't recognise that counter. Moca here thinks you're not buying nice, normal, affordable fast-food.

 

* * *

 

 

"And now I owe Tsugu 6500 yen."

"Damn, Moca. I'd offer to lend you some money, but then you'd just be owing me instead."

"Nah, go ahead. I can pay you back a different way."

The store is dead at 8pm, and Moca and Lisa are on shift together. Moca's honestly probably not even going to eat anything when she gets home, after that exorbitant-ass lunch.

"Then I want special rates on your services. No way I can't get some extra miles for being a loyal customer or something, right?"

"Not you too, Liiisaaaaa... why must everyone betray me today?" That's kind of unfair to Tsugu, actually, since the burger turned out to honestly be _really fucking good_ and they both sent their best attempts at pictures to the rest of Afterglow (Moca should be a professional goddamn stock photographer of, like, all food ever), but also the meal was a hot four digits, and not the kind you could feel okay about by rounding it down to 1000, and "you don't owe me for the meal, really!" my ass, Tsugu, Moca here literally owes you her life... regardless, she turns a quivering pout on Lisa.

...who stands unimpressed. "You want to make it worth my while by recompensating my cold, hard-earned cash with, like, sex? I want big value."

Moca pulls her face completely straight. "Making out too."

"That comes before sex."

"Not if I'm fast."

"Moca, you're a big girl now. You can earn 6.5k off in a couple days, right? Try picking up one or two more shifts to atone for your sins. And anyways, this is probably the first time ever I've heard of _you_  owing _someone else_. Where'd your money go?"

Moca glances away. "I'd make a really well-reasoned excuse, but, I guess... I just lost track of it. Maybe I'll blame the Yamabukis. I hereby deem their business too effective?"

"Want me to keep a planner for you?"

"Haha."

"No, seriously, want me to make you keep a planner? Line up all your finances in neat little rows."

"Imagine writing all that, Lisa... imagine writing every single entry, every single time. Would you do it, Lisa? Would you?"

Lisa leans in and slings her arm around Moca's back, pulling herself close up. Face-to-face. Softly, "Or you can take 1000 for an hour."

Moca smirks. "Well, shit. Seven hours and I'm done. That's one good night of--"

The Chime sounds! They hastily break apart. "Welcome!" "Summer sale!"

...

Moca throws aside-eyes at Lisa and mumbles under her breath. "Is that a real offer, though?" Weird pseudo-prostitution for your girlfriend isn't the worst option Moca could put on the table.

The customer's not even out of sight yet. Lisa hisses back. "Now that I think about it? Maybe not."

"Daaamn." Ruined by the bell.

The next few minutes pass uneventfully, as Lisa leans on the counter and softly taps, listening to the footsteps and rustles move through the aisles, while Moca scours her LINE for light rereading material until she gets bored and locks her phone.

Then it vibrates the moment she does, and then the customer strides out from the aisles toting a basket of what looks like one week's bare minimum sustenance. "Moca, stations." She'll check that notif in a second, she guesses.

"I'll help you here!" Lisa readies the scanner and Moca pulls out a bag. Roux, roux, instant miso soup, three more boxes of roux, chicken breast, a couple loose cans of ice tea. New bag. The second-cheapest bento...

"Your total comes to ¥2611."

"Is it okay if I pay by card?"

Moca's eyes widen just that imperceptible fraction. An actual card user. No way is the universe doing this to her.

Lisa drags the reader out of its little cubby-hole and hands it to the customer - "Here you go!" - who dutifully puts in a... debit card. Oh boy. Beep-beep, beep, beep. Beep.

Beeeeep.

"Alright, thank you very much!" "Sunshine!" Moca mentally breathes a sigh of relief. (Physically, she makes some people wonder if she even breathes, and she intends to keep it that way.)

Now it's Lisa's turn to be edgeways-smug at Moca. "What, you thought they were gonna get rejected?"

"I came close to using it, Lisa. So close. Only the core tenets of my inner Moca-deity saved me from a spiral of doom. Lemme check what this notif is..."

It's Tsugu on LINE. Lisa peers over Moca's shoulder to see, because knowing Moca, she would've gotten her to look at it anyway.

Moca reads off the message out loud, in a deliberate way that comes out even slower than her normal talk. "How about this. Question mark. I've decided I'm charging you negative interest. Exclamation mark. The more time goes on, the less you owe me. Exclamation mark. I feel bad, just hanging a debt over your head like this otherwise."

"Moca, I think you're being blessed."

"I think I'm being cursed. Oh, second message. Remember, no more than 4800 yen. Or you can treat me back sometime, that's fine too. Exclamation mark..." Moca slumps over the counter, letting out a prolonged groan into the blissful cold of the store's countertop. Lisa picks up Moca's phone from her defeated, lifeless hand.

"She sent a sticker of some tiny sheep kid doing a peace sign as well." Lisa really feels like this whole situation is slightly beyond her ken, but, like, at least... the other party's being unbearably innocently nice about it? Damn, matters of money.

Damn, her girlfriend's still lying dead on top of store property. Lisa gives her a confused sort of pat on the back. "Uh... Tsugumi's a nice girl, isn't she?"

Moca groans again.

"Tsuguuuu... you're such a nice giiiirl..."

**Author's Note:**

> Present Blue, Leaf in the Well
> 
> (shoutouts to ranka who basically singlehandedly got me into bandori proper. mocalisa good)
> 
> Himari accidentally sets her phone wallpaper to a sepia-tinted picture of burgers and fries


End file.
